Speech Recognition Anywhere - Windows Add-On

You may receive the following message from Windows Security:

If you receive the above message when trying to run the setup file then click on "More info". Then click on "Run anyway".

Speech Recognition Anywhere is an accessibility application that allows users to control their computer using their voice. The application can type key presses, move the mouse and click on buttons at the direction of the user. Therefore, it is easy for anti virus software to have a false positive and detect that it is potentially malicious.

Microsoft Windows Defender Windows 10 sometimes incorrectly detects the application as containing Trojan:Script/Wacatac.B!ml. Speech Recognition Anywhere is an accessibility application that allows users to control their computer using their voice. The application can type key presses, move the mouse and click on buttons at the direction of the user. Therefore, it is easy for anti virus software to have a false positive and detect that it is potentially malicious.

Virustotal.com scans files with over 50 different anti virus engines including AVG, ESET, Malwarebytes, Avast, BitDefender, McAfee, Symantec.

Virustotal.com scan of speech_recognition_anywhere_0.9.0.1.msi : No security vendors and no sandboxes flagged this file as malicious. https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/21b03c3333ec2711c6c9594f7d1bb30dffccf7f46f96b3914440996fb2cb94f3

Virustotal.com scan of speech_recognition_anywhere_0.9.0.0.msi : No security vendors and no sandboxes flagged this file as malicious. https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/b00649d8e1159a4e6db97ef496f8598f857d38af739219690eeeea8eec898578

Virustotal.com scan of speech.exe : 1 security vendor and no sandboxes flagged this file as malicious. Security vendor analysis "Bkav Pro" detected W32.AIDetectMalware.CS in speech.exe
All the other virus vendors' analysis were clean. Bkav Pro is notorious for false positives of downloadable files. 1 out of over 50 virus scanners means it is a false positive and not really infected with malware. https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/87a68c9017e9cca71e64846dd27e90222e7d5343d32783f2de3b8892a36e2032

Speech Recognition does not work with programs that start with: "User Account Control Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?"

Speech Recognition will not work with programs that require Admin privileges because User Account Control (UAC) on Windows starts the program with elevated privileges and then it can't be accessed by other programs. There are a few methods that you can try to make the program run without Administrator privileges that may or may not work:

1. You can try to start the program with Speech Recognition Anywhere by saying: "Start program <title of program>. Speech Recognition Anywhere will attempt to start the program without Admin privileges.
2. You can disable User Account Control (UAC) on Windows. To do so click on "⊞ Start", type in UAC. Select "Change User Account Control Settings". Use the slider to go down to "Never Notify". Click on "OK".
   This may disable Admin privileges for all programs. This method is not recommended because it can open Windows up to hackers if users of the computer are not careful using the Internet.
3. There are other methods to try and start individual programs without Admin privileges. Most of these methods require some advanced configuration. You can read about some of these methods at https://woshub.com/run-program-without-admin-password-and-bypass-uac-prompt/.

Windows 10 and above has protected system UI elements (such as the Windows Start Menu) or processes that might be running at a higher privilege level. These Windows cannot be written on top of with labels because of User Account Control (UAC) for Windows. To show labels on these processes UAC would need to prompt for access which needs be done with a mouse or keyboard.

If you need to have "Show numbers" for the Start Menu programs then you can try saying, "Show all programs" and then wait for the folder with path C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs to display. Then say "Show numbers".

Sadly, some Windows applications were not programmed with accessibility in mind.

If you are trying to use speech recognition in a text box then it may not work correctly if the programmers did not create the text box using the proper ControlType of "Document" or "Edit" with a "TextPattern". Speech Recognition Anywhere has a built-in "test_window" that can help you see the UIAutomation properties of an element. On the Windows Taskbar click on the Speech Recognition Anywhere application so that the window can be viewed. Then type the ~ on the keyboard and the test_window will appear. Now go to any Windows application window and hover the mouse over elements. The test_window will show the properties of the element including the "Name" and the "ControlType" or "LocalizedControlType" in the "HOVERED ELEMENT" section.

If you are trying to click on an element then you can see if the programmers added a proper accessibility name to the elements by saying: "Show labels". If the programmers added AutomationProperties.Name or the Control.AccessibleName property to the element then the label should appear next to the element. If the programmers didn't add the proper Name property then you still might be able to click on the element by saying: "Show Numbers". Then if the controlType is a proper Button element or other clickable element then you might be able to click on it by saying: "Click on [number]". For some elements you might need to say, "Double Click [number]" to properly activate it. If that still doesn't work then if you know the shortcut key for an element then you might be able to activate it by saying: "Type [key]". For example, you can try saying: "Type Control B".

Some applications may have data that is too large to do accessibility UI Automation. For instance, if Windows Media Player has hundreds of songs then if you try commands like "Click on [button]" or "Show numbers" then it may not work and may freeze Speech recognition anywhere and Windows media player for several seconds.

If you are trying to use text to speech to read a text box using speech synthesis then it may not work properly if the programmers did not create the text box using the proper ControlType of "Document" or "Edit" with a "TextPattern" or "ValuePattern". For example, if they just used a ControlType of "Pane" then there isn't any visible text available to accessibility programs. If that is the case then you can try saying: "Select All" or select text manually with the mouse and then say: "Read selection."

Please keep in mind that the Windows Add-On is in beta and there will be some bugs. Also, please keep in mind that Windows accessibility UIAutomation in some applications is not made correctly and will cause freezing with certain commands.

If the Windows Add-On is frozen or not responding after a certain command is spoken then you may choose to wait for the Windows Add-On. This may take several seconds or possibly a few minutes. When it starts responding again then you can click on the Windows Add-On icon in the Windows Taskbar to view the window and then click on "Copy to Clipboard" to copy the diagnostic information. Then you may paste the diagnostic information in an email to Speech Recognition Anywhere support. Hopefully a fix will be found in the future after analyzing the diagnostic data. In the meantime, you may need to refrain from using that command (at least in that particular program).

If you are in the middle of a project and don't have time to wait when the Windows Add-On freezes then you may try to end the Windows Add-On process using Windows Task Manager. Type Ctrl+Alt+Del and then click on "Start Task Manager". (Sometimes starting Task Manager with Ctrl+Shift+Esc will also work.) In Task Manager click on the "Processes" tab. Type "S" on the keyboard to scroll to the processes that start with "S" and then click on speech.exe. Then click on "End Task". You may then need to close and restart "Speech recognition anywhere" extension in the browser.